Nanotechnology VI SEM

Inorganic Chemistry

Definitions of nanotechnology

“Nanotechnology is the creation of functional materials, devices and systems through control
of matter on the nanometer length scale (1-100 nanometers), and exploitation of novel
phenomena and properties (physical, chemical, biological, mechanical, electrical...) at that
length scale.”

Definitions of nanomaterials

Nanomaterials describe, in principle, materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one
dimension) between 1 to 100 nanometres

zero-dimensional (0D) nanomaterials:

In zero-dimensional (0D) nanomaterials all the dimensions are measured within the nanoscale
(no dimensions are larger than 100 nm). Most commonly, 0D nanomaterials are nanoparticles.
one-dimensional nanomaterials (1D ) :
In one-dimensional nanomaterials (1D), one dimension is outside the nanoscale. This class
includes nanotubes, nanorods, and nanowires.
two-dimensional nanomaterials (2D):
In two-dimensional nanomaterials (2D), two dimensions are outside the nanoscale. This class
exhibits plate-like shapes and includes graphene, nanofilms, nanolayers, and nanocoating.
Three-dimensional nanomaterials : Three-dimensional nanomaterials (3D) are materials that
are not confined to the nanoscale in any dimension.
Nanotechnology is helping to considerably improve, even revolutionize, many technology and
industry sectors: information technology, homeland security, medicine, transportation, energy,
food safety, and environmental science, among many others. Described below is a sampling of
the rapidly growing list of benefits and applications of nanotechnology.

Many benefits of nanotechnology depend on the fact that it is possible to tailor the structures
of materials at extremely small scales to achieve specific properties, thus greatly extending the
materials science toolkit. Using nanotechnology, materials can effectively be made stronger,
lighter, more durable, more reactive, more sieve-like, or better electrical conductors, among
many other characters.

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BIBI AHMADI KHATOON Department of Chemistry
Yuvaraja’s college
Nanotechnology VI SEM
Inorganic Chemistry

Applications of nanotechnology/nanomaterials.

1. Electronic and Information technology

Nanotechnology has greatly contributed to major advances in computing and electronics,

leading to faster, smaller, and more portable systems that can manage and store larger and
larger amounts of information. These continuously evolving applications include:

2. Medical and healthcare

Nanotechnology is already broadening the medical tools, knowledge, and therapies currently
available to clinicians. Nanomedicine, the application of nanotechnology in medicine, draws
on the natural scale of biological phenomena to produce precise solutions for disease
prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Below are some examples of recent advances in this area,
for example application of gold nanoparticles as probes for the detection of targeted sequences
of nucleic acids, and gold nanoparticles are also being clinically investigated as potential
treatments for cancer and other diseases.

3. Energy

Nanotechnology is finding application in traditional energy sources and is greatly enhancing

alternative energy approaches to help meet the world’s increasing energy demands. Many
scientists are looking into ways to develop clean, affordable, and renewable energy sources,
along with means to reduce energy consumption and lessen toxicity burdens on the
environment:
Nanotechnology is improving the efficiency of fuel production from raw petroleum materials
through better catalysis. It is also enabling reduced fuel consumption in vehicles and power
plants through higher-efficiency combustion and decreased friction.

Nanotechnology can be incorporated into solar panels to convert sunlight to electricity more
efficiently, promising inexpensive solar power in the future.

4. Environmental remediation

In addition to the ways that nanotechnology can help improve energy efficiency (see the section
above), there are also many ways that it can help detect and clean up environmental
contaminants:

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BIBI AHMADI KHATOON Department of Chemistry
Yuvaraja’s college
Nanotechnology VI SEM
Inorganic Chemistry

• Nanotechnology could help meet the need for affordable, clean drinking water through
rapid, low-cost detection and treatment of impurities in water.

• Engineers have developed a thin film membrane with nanopores for energy-efficient
desalination. This molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) membrane filtered two to five times
more water than current conventional filters.
• Nanoparticles are being developed to clean industrial water pollutants in ground water
through chemical reactions that render the pollutants harmless. This process would cost
less than methods that require pumping the water out of the ground for treatment.

Properties of Nanomaterials
Nanomaterials have the structural features in between of those of atoms and the bulk materials.
While most microstructured materials have similar properties to the corresponding bulk
Materials, the properties of materials with nanometer dimensions are significantly different
from those of atoms and bulks materials. This is mainly due to the nanometer size of the
materials which render them:
(i) large fraction of surface atoms;
(ii) high surface energy;
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BIBI AHMADI KHATOON Department of Chemistry
Yuvaraja’s college
Nanotechnology VI SEM
Inorganic Chemistry

(iii) spatial confinement;

(iv) reduced imperfections,
which do not exist in the corresponding bulk materials. Due to their small dimensions,
nanomaterials have extremely large surface area to volume ratio, which makes a large to be the
surface or interfacial atoms, resulting in more “surface” dependent material properties.
Especially when the sizes of nanomaterials are comparable to length, the entire material will
be affected by the surface properties of nanomaterials. This in turn may enhance or modify the
properties of the bulk materials. For example, metallic nanoparticles can be used as very active
catalysts. Chemical sensors from nanoparticles and nanowires enhanced the sensitivity and
sensor selectivity. The nanometer feature sizes of nanomaterials also have spatial confinement
effect on the materials, which bring the quantum effects.

Optical Properties.

1) The properties like colour and transparency are considered as optical properties. These
properties are observed to change at nanoscale level. For example bulk gold appear yellow in
colour while in nanosize gold appear red in colour.

2.) Bulk silicon appears grey in colour while nanosized silicon appears red in colour. 3.) Zinc
oxide, which at bulk scale blocks ultraviolet light and scatters visible light and gives white
appearance. While nanoscale zinc oxide is very small in particle size compared with
wavelength of visible light and it does not scatters it. Thus it appears transparent.

Reason for change in optical properties in nanoscale: The main reason for change in optical
properties at nanoscale level is that nanoparticles are so small that electrons in them are not as
much free to move as in case of bulk material. Due to this restricted movement of electrons,
nanoparticles react differently with light as compared to bulk material.

Electrical properties

The properties like conductivity or resistivity are come under category of electrical properties.
These properties are observed to change at nanoscale level like optical properties. The
examples of the change in electrical properties in nanomaterials are:

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BIBI AHMADI KHATOON Department of Chemistry
Yuvaraja’s college
Nanotechnology VI SEM
Inorganic Chemistry

Conductivity of a bulk or large material does not depend upon dimensions like diameter or area
of cross section and twist in the conducting wire etc. However it is found that in case of carbon
nanotubes conductivity changes with change in area of cross section.

Magnetic Properties

Magnetic nanoparticles are those which can be affected using magnetic field. These particles
usually contain magnetic elements like iron, nickel, cobalt etc. Magnetic nanoparticles show a
variety of unusual magnetic behaviour when compared to the bulk materials, mostly due to
surface or interface effects, including symmetry breaking, electronic environment or charge
transfer and magnetic interactions.

Chemical properties of nanomaterials

Chemical properties of nanomaterials also change at nanoscale. As the percentage of surface
atoms in nanoparticles is large compared with bulk objects, therefore reactivities of
nanomaterials are more than bulk materials. The following are the some of the chemical
properties are:

1.) The superiority of surface is a major reason for the change in behaviour of materials at the
nanoscale. As up to half of all the atoms in nanoparticles are surface atoms, properties such as
electrical transport are no longer determined by solid-state bulk phenomenon.

2.) The atoms in nanomaterials have a higher average energy than atoms in longer structures,
because of the larger proportion of surface atoms. For example, catalytic materials have a
greater chemical activity per atom of exposed surface as the catalyst is reduced in size at the
nanoscale.

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BIBI AHMADI KHATOON Department of Chemistry
Yuvaraja’s college
Nanotechnology VI SEM
Inorganic Chemistry

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs)

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are an allotrope of carbon. They take the form of
cylindrical carbon molecules and have novel properties that make them potentially useful in a
wide variety of applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and other fields of materials
science.

Carbon Nanotubes Properties

• CNTs have high thermal conductivity

• CNTs have high electrical conductivity
• CNTs aspect ratio
• CNTs are very elastic ~18% elongation to failure
• CNTs have very high tensile strength
• CNTs are highly flexible — can be bent considerably without damage
• CNTs have a low thermal expansion coefficient
• CNTs are good electron field emitters

Synthetic methods
➢ The carbon arc discharge method
➢ Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
➢ Ball milling and subsequent annealing
➢ Liquid electrolysis method

Applications of Carbon nanotubes (CNTs)

Their unique composition, geometry, and properties enable numerous potential carbon
nanotubes applications. Getting costs down to commercially viable levels has proven
challenging but increasing scale is happening.

Energy Storage Electrical Conductivity

Molecular Electronics Fabrics And Fibers
Thermal Materials Catalyst Supports
Structural Materials Biomedical

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BIBI AHMADI KHATOON Department of Chemistry
Yuvaraja’s college
Nanotechnology VI SEM
Inorganic Chemistry

Nanowires

Nanowires are simply very tiny wires having nano-scale diameter. They are composed of
metals such as silver, gold or iron. which are used in nanotechnologies for the manufacturing
of nanomachines.

Types of Nanowires
Many different types of nanowires exist, including superconducting nanowires (e.g. YBCO),
metallic nanowires (e.g. Ni, Pt, Au), semiconducting nanowires (e.g. silicon nanowires
(SiNWs), InP, GaN) insulating nanowires (e.g. SiO2, TiO2). And Molecular nanowires are
composed of repeating molecular units either organic (e.g. DNA)

Vapour–liquid–solid method of nanowire synthesis of crystalline nanowires:

The vapour–liquid–solid method (VLS) is a mechanism for the growth of one-dimensional
structures, such as nanowires, from chemical vapor deposition. The growth of a crystal through
direct adsorption of a gas phase on to a solid surface is generally very slow. The VLS
mechanism circumvents this by introducing a catalytic liquid alloy phase which can rapidly
adsorb a vapor to supersaturation levels, and from which crystal growth can subsequently
occur from nucleated seeds at the liquid–solid interface. The physical characteristics of
nanowires grown in this manner depend, in a controllable way, upon the size and physical
properties of the liquid alloy.

Applications of nanowires
The most obvious use for nanowires is in electronics. Some nanowires are very good
conductors or semiconductors, and their miniscule size means that manufacturers could fit
millions more transistors on a single microprocessor. As a result, computer speed would
increase dramatically.

Nanowires in medicine

nanowires are used to coat titanium implants. Doctors have discovered that muscle tissue
sometimes doesn't adhere well to titanium, but when coated with the nanowires, the tissue can
anchor itself to the implant, reducing the risk of implant failure.

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BIBI AHMADI KHATOON Department of Chemistry
Yuvaraja’s college